Traditional sources of light such as the sun as well as incandescent and halogen lamps may exhibit the characteristics of a black body radiator. Such light sources typically emit a relatively continuous-spectrum of light, and the continuous emissions range the entire bandwidth of the visible light spectrum (e.g., light with wavelengths between approximately 390 nm and 700 nm). The human eye has grown accustomed to operating in the presence of black body radiators and has evolved to be able to distinguish a large variety of colors when emissions from a black body radiator are reflected off of an object of interest. Various wavelengths/frequencies of the visible light spectrum may be associated with a given “color temperature” of a black body radiator.
Non-incandescent light sources such as fluorescent lights (e.g., compact fluorescent lights or CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs) have become more widely available due to their relative power savings as compared to traditional incandescent lamps. Typically light from CFLs or LEDs does not exhibit the properties of a black body radiator. Instead, the emitted light is often more discrete in nature due to the differing mechanisms by which CFLs and/or LEDs generate light as compared to an incandescent or halogen light bulbs. Since fluorescents and LEDs do not emit relatively constant amounts of light across the visible light spectrum (e.g., instead having peaked intensities at one or more discrete points within the visible spectrum), fluorescents and LEDs are often referred to as discrete-spectrum light sources.